“I am a man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess”
This low-budget comedy show featured bearded Canadian outdoorsman Red Green (Steve Smith) and his nerdy nephew, Harold (Patrick McKenna), teaching viewers how to make excellent and useful crafts (and dispensing marriage advice) from the Possum Lodge, Chapter 13 – which is “135 beer stores away from Toronto” and whose motto was Quando omni flunkus, mortati – “When all else fails, play dead”.
Regular segments included the “Handyman’s Corner”, where Red’s philosophy of “if women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy” was played out with innovative, yet unseemly construction adaptations using duct tape – the “handyman’s secret weapon”; “The Experts”, featuring a panel of Possum Lodge, Chapter 13 members who answered viewer mail and found any way to respond without the words, “I don’t know”; and “Adventures with Bill”, a klutzy outdoors and nature segment – filmed in black and white – hosted by Possum Lodge’s clumsy naturalist Bill Smith (Rick Green) and narrated by Red.
Other Lodge members and characters included; compulsive liar Hap Shaughnessy (Gordon Pinsent); hippie bush pilot Buzz Sherwood (Peter Wildman); Monster Truck driver Dougie Franklin (Ian Thomas); natural resources enthusiast and golfer Bob Stuyvestant (Bruce Hunter); Ranger Gord (Peter Kelleghan), who lived atop a 100-foot tower on top of a 200-foot hill and had been guarding the watchtower for 16 years without a vacation; penny-pinching Dalton Humphries (Bob Bainborough); sales-without- the-service marina owner Glen Braxton (Mark Wilson); sweet but not innocent repeat offender Mike Hammer (Wayne Robson); dynamite-loving Edgar Montrose (Graham Greene); septic-sucking motivator Winston Rothschild III (Jeff Lumby, pictured below right); and big-city land developer Kevin Black (Paul Gross).
Characters who were referred to often but never seen included Red’s wife, sweet Bernice; the cranky, old, senile and mean Old Man Sedgewick; the large, stupid and strong Moose Thompson; the smelly and unclean Stinky Peterson; and the unlucky in love Junior Singleton.
Red Green
Steve Smith Harold Green
Patrick McKenna Bill Smith
Rick Green Dalton Humphrey
Bob Bainborough Winston Rothschild III
Jeff Lumby Mike Hamar
Wayne Robson Ranger Gord
Peter Keleghan Hap Shaughnessy
Gordon Pinsent Dougie Franklin
Ian Thomas Walter
Joel Harris Ed Frid
Jerry Schaefer Buzz Sherwood
Peter Wildman Glen Braxton
Mark Wilson Bob Stuyvesant
Bruce Hunter
Regular segments included the “Handyman’s Corner”, where Red’s philosophy of “if women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy” was played out with innovative, yet unseemly construction adaptations using duct tape – the “handyman’s secret weapon”; “The Experts”, featuring a panel of Possum Lodge, Chapter 13 members who answered viewer mail and found any way to respond without the words, “I don’t know”; and “Adventures with Bill”, a klutzy outdoors and nature segment – filmed in black and white – hosted by Possum Lodge’s clumsy naturalist Bill Smith (Rick Green) and narrated by Red.
Characters who were referred to often but never seen included Red’s wife, sweet Bernice; the cranky, old, senile and mean Old Man Sedgewick; the large, stupid and strong Moose Thompson; the smelly and unclean Stinky Peterson; and the unlucky in love Junior Singleton.
